


Sole

by valisi



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:12:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valisi/pseuds/valisi
Summary: Levi wonders if Erwin has ever considered a punishment for him. Because Erwin thinks of everything.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [惩罚](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11704599) by [shentu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shentu/pseuds/shentu)



> I posted this really short piece on [Tumblr](http://valisi-clark.tumblr.com/post/154797012119/most-of-the-time-mistakes-made-by-survey-corps) a while back, and it occurred to me that readers who don't have a Tumblr could have missed it. I wrote this while I was taking a break from a longer work.

Most of the time, mistakes made by Survey Corps soldiers are simple. One of the doors to a stall in the stable is left open, and a horse wanders the grounds for twenty minutes before someone discovers it. Or the soldier standing post at the armory falls asleep during the night shift. A soldier forgets to clean under one bed post and is sentenced to cleaning the entire second floor of the headquarters again.

As Levi mentally records all of these simple mistakes, followed by simple punishments, his mind begins to wander into dangerous territory. He has never disobeyed an order before. He has never planned on it. Trusting Erwin had only ever led him to success. But what could Erwin really do to him? He loves physical training. He loves cleaning. Considering that he was a high ranking officer, those punishments wouldn’t be appropriate for any type of mistake that he could make. There had never been a time that punishment was necessary for him. But the hypothetical situation excites his imagination. He wonders if Erwin has ever considered a punishment for him. Because Erwin thinks of everything.

One night, while sitting in Erwin’s office, Levi holds his tea cup in his hand absent-mindedly while he stares at Erwin, who is bent over his desk reading reports. The curiosity is eating him alive, and he needs to find a covert way to satiate it.

“One of Mike’s brats left one of the horse stalls open again today,” Levi comments.

“I know,” Erwin replies without looking up. Levi knows that Erwin is adverse to punishment. Erwin doesn’t see the need in making a soldier’s life miserable for any amount of time when he or she could die within the month.

“Mike handled it?”

“He told me that the reprimand he gave was suitable,” Erwin says, flipping to the next page of the report.

“The reprimand probably wasn’t even verbal. It was a sniff and a stare,” Levi grumbles. One edge of Erwin’s mouth tilts up in a grin, and Levi smirks before taking another sip of his tea.

“Something’s on your mind?” Erwin asks. He marks the report that he’s reading and looks up from his desk at Levi. Levi swallows a mouthful of tea and meets Erwin’s gaze. He relaxes in the chair a bit further, adjusting the one leg he has crossed over the other. Erwin quietly sets his pen down and continues to search Levi’s face for what he might be thinking.

“I guess if Mike ever fucked up, you could give him shit scooping duty,” Levi says. Erwin smiles and furrows his brows.

“I suppose so,” Erwin says with a gentle chuckle. Levi shrugs.

“Officer punishments,” Levi says. “They hardly ever happen.” Erwin shakes his head, still not following.

“There’s no need,” he replies. “I choose my officers carefully.” Levi feels the frustration squeezing his backbone. He can’t figure out how to gain the information that he wants without revealing too much about what he’s thinking. Erwin narrows his eyes while he continues to scrutinize the micro-expressions that are flashing through Levi’s gray eyes.

“But if it did happen, what could you do?” Levi asks. He takes another sip of his tea as if it’s a simple remark.

“Oh,” Erwin says, a smile obvious in his voice. When Levi lowers the tea cup from his mouth, he sees that Erwin has an amused grin on his face.

“What?” Levi snaps. Erwin shakes his head in wonder.

“After all of this time, you can still surprise me, Levi,” Erwin says. Levi doesn’t know how to respond, and he hopes that Erwin will simply tell him what he wants to hear if he remains quiet long enough. “You want to know what I would do if an officer ever made an infraction that required a punishment?” Levi shrugs, pretending to still be disinterested.

“You take most of the punishment for us anyway,” Levi says. “Going to Mitras would be Hell.” Erwin nods in agreement, still holding the expression of amusement.

“If you’re so curious, you can ask the question outright, or simply make polite conversation instead,” Erwin says. Levi scoffs and fights the temptation to roll his eyes. But when Erwin picks up his pen to begin on the report again, Levi knows he can’t let the opportunity escape him.

“So, if one of your officers ever really pissed you off, what are you going to do about it, Erwin? Push-ups? Cleaning duty?” Levi knows he’s revealed too much at that point. He doesn’t have verbal expertise like Erwin, but his imagination is too wild with possibility. Most importantly, he wants to know more about how Erwin’s mind works. He wants to know every thought, every scenario, that has ever passed through that beautiful blond head. Erwin sets his pen down again.

“Of course not,” Erwin says as he makes direct eye contact with Levi again. “Truthfully, it depends on the infraction and the offender.”

“Hange. What would you do if Hange fucked up?”

“Easy,” Erwin says. “Change the lock on her office. Refuse Titan research for three days.”

“Shit,” Levi says, snapping his head back as if he had been slapped.

“You asked what would happen if an officer truly made an infraction,” Erwin reminds him. Levi eyes Erwin warily, suddenly second-guessing whether he wants to know. But now that he’s had a taste, he needs to know more.

“Mike?”

“I probably would give him stable cleaning duty,” Erwin admits. “Or direct him to help with the laundry area. He hates both of those equally.” Levi nods, understanding. Mike’s nose couldn’t stand shit or strong chemicals. Either way, he would be rather miserable. “Don’t you want to know about yourself?” Levi takes another sip of his tea, not feeling quite as anxious about the question. Erwin was obviously helping him out. After swallowing, Levi shrugs and nods.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Since we’re already on the topic and everything,” Erwin teases with a wide smile. Levi only glares at him in return and dislikes that he ever brought up the subject at all. He can’t tell if Erwin is stimulated by the conversation or if he’s being patronizing.

“Whatever.”

“I would write my name on the bottom of your boot,” Erwin says. Levi furrows his eyebrows in confusion, and his head involuntarily tilts.

“Write your name on my boot?” Levi asks incredulously.

“On the sole,” Erwin corrects him. Levi can’t help the gentle chuckling building up his chest. Eventually, the chuckling turns into laughter, and Levi has to set his tea cup on the table to avoid dropping it. He lifts his free hand to cover his mouth because it looks like Erwin’s amusement from earlier is slipping away, and Levi doesn’t really know why he’s laughing. It was unexpected. He thought Erwin would have created something so much sinister.

“So,” Levi has to collect himself from laughter further. “What the fuck is that supposed to do?”

“I’ll show you,” Erwin says calmly. He holds his hand out. “Hand me your left boot.” Levi starts to feel apprehension raise in his spine from Erwin’s sudden change of attitude, and he’s laughing nervously at this point.

“No, Erwin,” Levi chuckles. “You’re not writing your name on my fucking boot.”

“Because you know what it would do?” Erwin’s eyes are calm. All of the amusement from earlier has disappeared, and Levi doesn’t understand why he feels his hairline on his forehead suddenly tingling.

“It’s not going to do shit,” Levi says, not laughing any more.

“Prove it to me,” Erwin says. 

The anxiety begins mutating into irritation. He hates it when Erwin is unnecessarily pushy, and Levi doesn’t understand the point of an example. His mouth flattens into a thin line, which he has trouble not turning into a sneer, and he stands from his chair. Levi moves closer to Erwin’s desk, leaning on the edge of it while he reaches down to pull off his left boot. It’s still dirty from training with his Squad earlier, but he pulls it off, handing it to Erwin, basically shoving it at him. He makes sure to keep his clean sock off of the floor while it’s without a boot to protect it.

Gently, Erwin takes Levi’s small boot in his hand and flips it so he’s staring at the sole of the leather. Erwin picks up his pen and dips it into his ink before carefully, neatly printing each letter of his full name on the sole of Levi’s boot, the letters spanning from the arch of the boot to the toes. When each letter is complete, Erwin sets his pen back on the desk and purses his lips to blow on the fresh ink. Levi watches as Erwin breathes onto the leather and watches the ink dry. Erwin’s expression has changed, and Levi wishes that he was able to read it. Over time, Levi was able to to learn how to read many people, but he still can’t read Erwin, not even when it seems to be very important.

When the ink is dry, Erwin hands Levi’s boot back to him, and Levi takes it carefully, looking at the clear black letters on the sole. Automatically, his eyebrows furrow, and he doesn’t recognize the emotion that accompanies looking at that name. There’s something very wrong with Erwin’s name being on the bottom of someone’s shoe, but he can’t put words to it.

“Now you can put it on,” Erwin says. Levi looks up and meets Erwin’s blue eyes. He’s thoroughly irritated at this point. The entire situation ended up being shitty, and he doesn’t understand how he lost control of it so quickly. Levi can’t put the the boot back onto his foot. Even if he doesn’t understand why, he’s not going to do it. Instead, he shoves the boot up under his arm while he reaches down to pull his right boot off. He’s not going to wear the boot, not while Erwin’s name is on it, and he’s sure as hell not going to walk around headquarters in one boot like an idiot. Once his foot is free of his right boot, Levi holds both of his boots by the tops in one hand. “You refuse to wear it?”

Levi can’t respond. He turns away from Erwin’s desk and begins to walk towards the door.

“Levi,” Erwin says. Levi stops, but he doesn’t turn to look at Erwin. “I’ll never have a reason to do that to you again. It was just an example.”

“Your examples are fucked,” Levi says as he moves to the office door, opening it to get out of the room quickly, closing the door behind him. The only thing he can think of is scrubbing Erwin’s name off of the boot and the feeling of the cold stone floor through his socks.

He can’t imagine wearing Erwin’s name on the bottom of his boot, stepping in dirt, trudging through mud, even flying through the air. He won’t have Erwin below him like that. Levi still doesn’t understand why he’s angry when he goes to his quarters. He doesn’t understand why he scrubs at the ink so fervently, or why he feels so relieved when every drop of ink is scrubbed out of the leather. Scrubbing the boot doesn’t feel like enough, and before Levi fully realizes what he’s doing, he’s stripped every layer of polish from the boot and is giving the boot a full treatment of soap and polish. Because the leather feels dirty now. He finds himself dreaming of having a new pair of boots soon so he can discard the ones in his hands. He never wants to think of Erwin’s name on the bottom of his boot ever again. It felt wrong; it felt like a sin to put Erwin’s name to the floor.

When the boots are finally cleaned and polished twice, Levi sets them on the floor and stares at them. He leans over on his elbows and eyes the boots as if they will reveal why he felt so upset, so pissed off. That’s when he hears a noise near his door, and Levi’s eyes dart to door handle, expecting someone to interrupt him. Instead, he sees a piece of white paper shoved under his door. Levi’s eyebrows pinch together when he stands from the bed. He knows who the note is from, and there’s no telling what Erwin has decided to write to him now.  
Levi crosses the room and snatches the paper from the floor. He unfolds it and his gray eyes dart across the page.

> _Captain,  
>  I apologize for upsetting you earlier. I didn’t predict that my example would affect you so deeply.  
> Please open your door._

Levi scoffs and puts his hand on the doorknob, turning and yanking the door open. Erwin is standing at his doorway, hands folded behind his back, face devoid of emotion. Then, Erwin pulls his right hand from behind his back, holding a tin of tea out to Levi.

“I bought this while I was in Sina,” Erwin explains. “I intended to serve it to you tonight, but I was distracted by my paperwork. I’d like for you to have it.” Levi reaches out and takes the tin, inspecting the label. It wasn’t a rare blend, but it was more expensive than the varieties sold in Trost. Once he has read the information on the label, his hand tightens around the tin. Levi lifts his gaze to Erwin’s blue eyes. He sees the guilt. 

“Am I going to drink this by myself, or are you coming in?” Levi asks. The tension in his chest eases when he sees the light flare in Erwin’s eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Derived from the idea that King Tut had images of his enemies carved and painted into the soles of his shoes, to walk on his enemies every step of the way.


End file.
